Description
This article describes Dr. E. H. McCleery's intended response to James Curran's challenge that if anyone can prove that a wolf ever attacked a human, Curran would give them $100 (roughly $1,500 in 2013). Dr. McCleery read about the challenge in the November 19, 1931 issue of the New York Sun and declares that he can prove by affidavit the attacks on 11 of his employees by wolves. Admitting that his experience is purely with captive wolves, he discusses the aggressive tendencies of his lobo wolves specifically, both as pups and as adults. Partial text of the article is quoted below.
Source
Format
Publisher
Date
November 25, 1931
Page Numbers
1, 6
Access
The Kane Republican is available on microfilm.
Copyright
This article is in-copyright. Copyright belongs to the Kane Republican. Partial text of the article is posted in this archive with permission as documented here.
Partial Text
"We have not had any experience with wolves at large but after ten years of association with a pack of Lobos in pens, I can say that Lobo wolves will attack humans," Dr. McCleery declared.
"I can prove by affidavit that ten of the men employed about the wolf pens and myself all have been attacked, and some of us badly bitten several times before we were able to beat off the attacks.
"William Hornaday, manager of the Bronx Zoo during the last years of his life, and a renowned naturalist, said in his book, "The Mind and Manners of Wild Animals," that he had carefully investigated some of the stories he had heard of wolves killing people, and cites several instances where starving wolves killed and devoured mail carriers. These instances were in the territory which the big lobo inhabited at that time.
"The timber wolf of Southern Canada has important points of difference from the Lobo, or Russian wolf. We have raised 25 to 30 Lobo pups each year, and it is not uncommon to see one four weeks of age stand in front of the rest of the litter and fight the keeper who is taking them from the den. We had one female wolf which we killed at three months of age because she did not hesitate to attack anyone who attempted to enter her yard.
"I can prove by affidavit that ten of the men employed about the wolf pens and myself all have been attacked, and some of us badly bitten several times before we were able to beat off the attacks.
"William Hornaday, manager of the Bronx Zoo during the last years of his life, and a renowned naturalist, said in his book, "The Mind and Manners of Wild Animals," that he had carefully investigated some of the stories he had heard of wolves killing people, and cites several instances where starving wolves killed and devoured mail carriers. These instances were in the territory which the big lobo inhabited at that time.
"The timber wolf of Southern Canada has important points of difference from the Lobo, or Russian wolf. We have raised 25 to 30 Lobo pups each year, and it is not uncommon to see one four weeks of age stand in front of the rest of the litter and fight the keeper who is taking them from the den. We had one female wolf which we killed at three months of age because she did not hesitate to attack anyone who attempted to enter her yard.